Saturday, April 27, 2013

The end product

It sure took me a while, but I finally got around to glazing the pottery pieces that I had thrown at Firepit ceramics. Unfortunately the completion came with a push and some sad news - the ceramics studio was closing, but at least I have these wonderful pieces to remember the studio and the wonderful people I met there.
Chip and dip pre-glaze
Chip and dip post-glaze

All my 2013 pieces thrown and glazed at Firepit Ceramics

Monday, April 22, 2013

As organic as it comes

This is not only beautiful to look at, but it will do us all good. Green walls are not only good for your health, but can improve your mood. It can help polluted cities counteract smog, reduce noise and even make buildings energy effecient. I would vote for all buildings to literally go 'green'. Just keep in mind bug spray would be mandatory :)

Winner of the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Save the drama for yo mama - part 2

So if you've been reading, part 1 was all about the incident and immediate problems. I was hoping that would be it, but no, we had lasting problems which made it impossible to skip a part 2. 

The week after the first warning notice, we received a SECOND notice from Riata, saying that we had to get rid of Watson! Aaaaah! and that wasn't even the bummer, we had to do so in 24 hours, or they would come and take him or charge us per day he stayed on the premises. Now as conflicting as this is from the first notice, we investigated and found out that the upper management heard about it and they sent the eviction notice regardless of the first notice sent by the local management office. URGH! Talk about stress times a million! Also after a lot of calls we were able to board him with the Austin Boxer Rescue that we had got him from, until we decided what we would do next.

Yes, what were we going to do next??!? We still had a lease agreement till end of July, so we worked it out with the local office (who mind you, was on our side) and were able to break out of our lease early without any penalties. Then we decided to move to a house so that Watson would have a yard, but how were we going to find one in such a short time? After trying unsuccessfully to do it ourselves, we reached out to the realtor we met when we first moved to  Austin, Ms. Patti and she was just as motivated as us. We sorted through many listings and looked at houses every day and we were absolutely lucky to find one that we loved. So we put in our application and waited...

Monday, April 15, 2013

Doggie deals

I love a good deal and I would like to think most people do. I subscribe to probably every known Austin deals site online - Groupon, LivingSocial, MorgansDeals and more.

Anyway there was a great deal today for 15% off Livingsocial deals under $99, with the coupon code TAXDAY.  I decided that I would pick up the two-month Pawalla subscription for Watson. If you're not interested in a monthly subscription, there is also a deal for $30 worth of pet goods and food at PetFlow.com. Whichever one you choose, your dog (or cat) is bound to be spoilt rotten and happy!
Two months of surprises for Watson (and me too).